A theatre firm has condemned the “barrage of deplorable racial abuse” that has been directed at a solid member of a new manufacturing of Romeo & Juliet starring Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers.
In a press release on Friday, the Jamie Lloyd Firm stated the net abuse “should cease” and that additional harassment can be reported.
It got here after the announcement of the complete solid of the present, together with Amewudah-Rivers as Juliet, alongside Freema Agyeman, Michael Balogun, Tomiwa Edun, Mia Jerome, Daniel Quinn-Toye and Ray Sesay.
“Following the announcement of our Romeo & Juliet solid, there was a barrage of deplorable racial abuse on-line directed in direction of a member of our firm,” the assertion stated. “This should cease. We’re working with a exceptional group of artists. We insist that they’re free to create work with out dealing with on-line harassment.”
The corporate, run by the director Jamie Lloyd, stated it could “proceed to assist and defend everybody in our firm in any respect prices. Any abuse is not going to be tolerated and might be reported. Bullying and harassment haven’t any place on-line, in our business or in our wider communities.”
Its rehearsal room for the present was “stuffed with pleasure, compassion and kindness,” the corporate stated.
It added: “We rejoice the extraordinary expertise of our unimaginable collaborators. The Romeo & Juliet group will proceed to rehearse with generosity and love, and give attention to the creation of our manufacturing.”
The play runs on the Duke of York’s Theatre from 11 Might – 3 August. It is going to be the Spider-Man star Holland’s first main theatre function since his debut in Billy Elliot: The Musical.
Final summer season, he stated he was taking a break from performing after starring within the Apple TV+ sequence The Crowded Room, a psychological thriller that he additionally produced. The star has grow to be one in every of Britain’s best-known younger display actors however owes his profession to the stage.
Lloyd is thought for mounting daring, megastar-led variations of basic performs akin to Physician Faustus with Package Harington, Betrayal with Tom Hiddleston and The Seagull with Emilia Clarke. His new manufacturing of the musical Sundown Boulevard, with Nicole Scherzinger, just lately ended a sold-out run at London’s Savoy theatre and is transferring to Broadway in September.
Final 12 months Lloyd directed Taylor Russell and Paapa Essiedu in a revival of Lucy Prebble’s play The Impact on the Nationwide Theatre, earlier than opening on the Shed in New York final month.
Romeo & Juliet is billed as “a pulsating new imaginative and prescient of Shakespeare’s immortal story of wordsmiths, rhymers, lovers and fighters”. It’s Lloyd’s first Shakespeare manufacturing since he staged Richard III at Trafalgar Studios in 2014, with Martin Freeman within the lead function.
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